Not All Selves Feel the Same Uncertainty: Assimilation to Primes Among Individualists and Collectivists

Three experiments and a pilot study demonstrated that uncertainty about the self is uncomfortable (Pilot Study) and causes people to change their self-concepts in response to primes (Experiments 1–3), depending on both the nature of the uncertainty and how the self is defined. In Experiment 1, Asian Americans assimilated to a stereotype prime when made to feel uncertain about their collective selves, whereas European Americans assimilated to the prime when made to feel uncertain about their individual selves. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated the assimilation effect with a trait prime, and using individualism–collectivism instead of ethnicity as the moderator.